Firm Builds Gravity-Producing Gear To Grow Plants On Moon

As NASA gears up for a manned moon landing through its Artemis program, some Japanese venture companies are taking steps toward making it possible for humans to eventually live there, Amane Shimazaki reported for Asahi Shimbun.

Photo Insert: The device, called the “AMAZ,” was named after a god from Japanese mythology.

Shingo Horiguchi, 41, president of space-business consulting firm DigitalBlast Inc., said many things humans need to live on Earth will also be required for living on the moon or Mars--meaning potential markets for companies in the future.

The first big one is food and plant cultivation, since living and working on the moon requires a large amount of food, but transporting it from Earth would cost huge amounts of money.

Plants on Earth know which way to grow and burrow their roots due to gravity, but they have trouble with that in space. So, the Tokyo-based firm developed a device in May that artificially generates gravity for plants.

About the size of a large backpack, at 20 centimeters in diameter, 40 cm wide, and 5 kilograms in weight, it can create the same gravity in space as that on Earth or the moon.

A user can put plants in three capsules, which the machine rotates to create gravity. The user can change the rotation speed of each capsule, with more than 100 rotations a minute generating the same gravity as Earth, less than 50 rotations for that of the moon, while no rotations mean zero gravity.

The device, called the “AMAZ,” was named after a god from Japanese mythology.

Horiguchi said there have been many experiments comparing plant cultivation in zero gravity and under Earth’s gravity, but it is rare to do experiments focusing on plant cultivation on the moon or Mars.

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